Investors Boost Barclays Stock On Turnaround Moves

Shares of Barclays (BCS), Britain's third-largest bank, gapped up nearly 10% early Tuesday after it said it will cut its workforce by 3,700 and trim its investment banking business.

Antony Jenkins, who took the helm at the troubled bank last August, also cut the average bonus for investment bankers 14% after whacking it by 17% last year, and raised the bank's dividend 8% to 10 cents a share.

Barclays was snared in a global investigation of rigging Libor, the benchmark interest rate pegged to trillions in financial transactions globally.

The bank paid a $450 million fine last June for manipulating interest rates, which led to the departure of former CEO Robert Diamond and Chairman Marcus Agius.

It's also being probed by British banking officials for possibly misreporting fundraising from Middle East investors.

Jenkins said nearly one in three Barclay's branches, about 340 offices, will be shuttered in Europe and it will scale back equities and advisory services in Europe and Asia to focus on the U.S., Britain and Africa.

"Barclays is changing," Jenkins told reporters at a news conference. "There will be no going back to the old way of doing things."

Its stock began recovering last summer just before Jenkins came aboard, and has risen 123% since July 24.

It's trading well above both 50-day and 200-day averages, at the highest level since March 2011.

The financial services company isn't out of the woods though. It has reported revenue declines in each of the last six quarters.

Among other large banks in the Banks-Money Center group, ranked a lofty 17 on IBD's list of 197 industry groups, Morgan Stanley (MS) rose 1.5%.

New York-based Morgan Stanley capped off earnings season for the largest banks last month with some of the best results for the group. It said at the time it planned to speed up purchase of its buyout of wealth management partner Citigroup (C), as it tries to boost its presence in that less-volatile area.

Shares of Barclays (BCS), Britain's third-largest bank, gapped up nearly 10% early Tuesday after it said it will cut its workforce by 3,700 and trim its investment banking business.

Antony Jenkins, who took the helm at the troubled bank last August, also cut the average bonus for investment bankers 14% after whacking it by 17% last year, and raised the bank's dividend 8% to 10 cents a share.

Barclays was snared in a global investigation of rigging Libor, the benchmark interest rate pegged to trillions in financial transactions globally.

The bank paid a $450 million fine last June for manipulating interest rates, which led to the departure of former CEO Robert Diamond and Chairman Marcus Agius.

It's also being probed by British banking officials for possibly misreporting fundraising from Middle East investors.

Jenkins said nearly one in three Barclay's branches, about 340 offices, will be shuttered in Europe and it will scale back equities and advisory services in Europe and Asia to focus on the U.S., Britain and Africa.

"Barclays is changing," Jenkins told reporters at a news conference. "There will be no going back to the old way of doing things."

Its stock began recovering last summer just before Jenkins came aboard, and has risen 123% since July 24.

It's trading well above both 50-day and 200-day averages, at the highest level since March 2011.

The financial services company isn't out of the woods though. It has reported revenue declines in each of the last six quarters.

Among other large banks in the Banks-Money Center group, ranked a lofty 17 on IBD's list of 197 industry groups, Morgan Stanley (MS) rose 1.5%.

New York-based Morgan Stanley capped off earnings season for the largest banks last month with some of the best results for the group. It said at the time it planned to speed up purchase of its buyout of wealth management partner Citigroup (C), as it tries to boost its presence in that less-volatile area.

See Also

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03/02/2015 06:45 PM ET

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